Report reduction in design time and minimal errors with EPLAN

Kasa Anlagen India Private Limited, an Indo American joint venture also Authorized System Integrator for Rittal India Pvt. Ltd, located in SIDCO Industrial Estate, in Tirumudivakkam, Tamil Nadu is a leading industrial electrical and automation company, providing turnkey industrial control systems inclusive design, panel building, software programming, system integration and start-up. The company, with 52 employees (28 engineers) specializes in working with End-users, Electrical Contractors, Conveyor Manufacturers, OEM’s General Contractors and Mechanical Contractors and has built a large customer base inclusive of clients from India, Africa (Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Nigeria, South Africa), South East Asia (Thailand and Indonesia), Europe (Denmark) and North America (Canada). An ISO 9001:2008 certified enterprise, Kasa Anlagen India Private Limited has always been focused on delivering quality in all facets of its business and the company aims to be a global solution provider in the field of Industrial Electricals and Automation as part.

Achieving high quality standards with the right CAE solution

Prior to EPLAN Electric P8, Kasa Anlagen was using other CAD-Systems. However, when they started working with European MNCs whose standards and quality expectations were high, they felt that the used CAE solutions did not provide them with the features to live up to the stringent quality as expected by their clients. Furthermore, the lack of customization for producing unique and custom engineered panels lead to quality issues where GA, BOM and Scheme were not matching. This in turn led to a lot of confusion in procurement and assembling, with the team having to resort to last minute fire-fighting. Also, the inability to produce proper cable schedules, terminal plans and interconnection diagrams led to unnecessary problems encountered by the field services team. Initially introduced and recommended by their clients, EPLAN Electric P8, has helped Kasa Anlagen overcome all of the quality issues and hurdles that they had been experiencing, and forge ahead as a quality provider of Industrial Electricals and Automation.

The EPLAN Advantage

EPLAN Electric P8, an engineering solution from EPLAN Software and Service that is part of the Friedhelm Loh Group, is unlike most of the other Computer Aided Engineering tools, which mostly provide design and documentation. EPLAN Electric P8 on the other hand, provides standardized procedures, automated sequences, and consistent workflows that greatly improve overall efficiency in project planning, documentation and management of automation projects. Another advantage of EPLAN is that it provides custom-made concepts for system implementation, installation and smooth integration into the PDM/PLM system landscape. As part of its automation features, EPLAN provides automated generation of detailed reports, which in turn leads to faster completion of the project, in addition to consistency and integration throughout the entire product development process. Kasa Anlagen, through the implementation of EPLAN in 2002, has been able to meet the high expectations as required by their customers. Furthermore, EPLAN was easy to use and came with a good set up for service and support in India. The initial batch of engineers were trained by EPLAN, and subsequent trainings were completed in-house, with inputs for specialized help and training from the EPLAN team. Currently four Electrical and Automation engineers in Kasa Anlagen work with EPLAN and are extremely satisfied with all facets of the product till date.

Highlights and Benefits experienced by Kasa Anlagen

• ƒƒKasa Anlagen found EPLAN best suited for the design of the various complicated schemes and panels, which are common in their workflow. Additionally, when cross ferruling was a requirement, EPLAN lived up to the expectations.ƒƒ
• Advanced customization led to the elimination of quality issues with respect to GA, BOM and Scheme, and thereby to a more efficient procurement by the assembly/wiring team.
• Superior documentation system, helped in the development of proper cable schedules, terminal plans and interconnection diagrams, which in turn led to greater efficiency in the Field Services team.
• ƒƒHuge savings were made in engineering time as EPLAN enabled client approval in just two revisions. Additionally, since EPLAN supports filters in report generation, Kasa Anlagen could filter specific changes made by customers with regards to feeder list/IO list.
• Greater efficiency reported by the design team with the help of special EPLAN design workflow features such as Auto Generation of TB Charts, Cross References and NO/NC page reference and quantity.
• An improvement in product and project quality through the ability to standardize recurrent content and fewer production delays attributable to fewer missed engineering deadlines or errors.
• Kasa Anlagen experienced greater integration of international locations with the Unicode ability of EPLAN, thereby leading to faster execution of projects and fewer errors.

Conclusion

In conclusion, we see that EPLAN has helped Kasa Anlagen increase productivity, reduce processing time, and remove unnecessary bottlenecks in design workflow, manufacture and set up. Most importantly, EPLAN has given the company the confidence to take on international projects that demand high quality and achieve its goal of being a global player in the field of Industrial Electricals and Automation with its concept of EPLAN experience. To quote the words of the Chairman and MD of Kasa Anlagen, Mr. M S Balaji, “Kasa Anlagen has benefitted highly after the introduction of EPLAN in the organization with reduced design time and minimal errors. It has given us the strength to handle large projects internationally and we always look forward to implementation of the latest developments in EPLAN.”